Whose Side are you On?

I’m going to be vague just to keep from linking jerks who deserve no further traffic, also so I don’t accidentally skip one of the countless cases that have been popping up as of late.

Look the blog community is just that, a community, if there was just one or two of us out there we’d generally suck. Who’s the first blog you read in the morning? If you’re like most people you get up and see what Chance over at Say Uncle and see what he’s put up. Of course most of Chance’s posts are links with a short riff to other blogs. Now nobody (including this blogger) complains because Chance isn’t stealing your thunder, he’s pointing more eyes at your hard work and paying you quite a good compliment as prefacing the linked post is worth a read.

Everybody wins. Chance gets solid traffic because people can come for solid content, the people linked get a big bump in traffic, and maybe some new readers. The same goes down the road. I’ve linked various people who have dropped some good content, and gotten thanks for the bump in traffic. Furthermore I’ll grab content from other bloggers and add my own riff on it, some times they’ll riff back, or a 3rd party will add, and a big chain of interesting content will show up. I’ve found myself reading dozens of pages just by following cited links when researching a past topic.

Again everybody wins. When everybody wins it not only makes happy faces all over the world, but it furthers the cause we’re all working for. If you’re reading this blog, I bet you like guns, and are for civil rights, and probably don’t like nosy busy-bodies getting up in your grill. If I link to a post by another blogger, chances are they’re standing for the same business, and they have some neat stuff to share.

Then there are other people. These people evidently think the internet is their drunk sorority sister to rape. Its all about them, so who cares what other people think.

They steal whole posts…but add a hyperlink as if that dodges copyright.
They grab images and use them however they so feel, even if the owner of said image expresses clear disapproval
They make posts supporting the opposition just to troll for hits and comments, rather than doing anything constructive

Seriously people? Try to help the cause rather than wrecking it…and if you want to be an asshole be an asshole on your own dime!

When I started “Blogging” it was on Livejournal (hence the quote marks), which meant I was boxed into the Livejournal sphere, so I wasn’t stepping on anybody’s toes. When I moved into this blog I thought about what place I’d hold in the internet.

Jay’s a Close friend, and the Godfather of the Northeast Gun Blogs. He’s also a fellow Masshole. When I do local news I check over at Jay’s first to make sure I’m not going “Me Too” on one of his stories, sometimes I contact him, often I find our voices are different enough that we’re always delivering new content.

On the other side I’m totally flattered when somebody covers a local story at their own blog on a murder done without a gun, and they drop a hat tip to the “Gun Death?” files. You’re not stepping on my toes, I only do one “Gun Death?” story a day, so I can’t get them all, there are plenty to go around, but its a very nice move to send a link my way to acknowledge that its a big pet project of mine. Also thanks to all who have dropped links to the files as a rebuttal to overzealous antis who somehow think “Gun Death” is a metric we should really put any credence into.

So in short, share the road and don’t be a dick. Being an upstanding blogger will not only make you friends, but it makes things better for everybody. I do this as a hobby, but also because I believe that spreading information will do some good in the world. If you also believe in the cause don’t dam up the flow!

If you want to talk about what might drive women away from the shooting sports and 2nd amendment activism, it’s this. It’s the risk of being lowered to nothing more than a sexualized object with no other value than gaining attention. When Breda posts a picture of herself as a confident and empowered woman carrying a gun, it gives some balance against the scores of YouTube videos where some drooling dolt has handed his hot girlfriend a firearm for the express purpose of making her hurt herself or jiggle for the camera. Reposting said image with a salacious title undoes some of that good.

Well Said Jennifer! go read the whole thing! (Also note that the flap mentioned there is hardly the ONLY example I’m talking about)

I just removed my entire “Weer’d Porn” post. Sorry about that. It wasn’t up long, and I’ll offer to pay for the therapy of my readers. And clean up of whatever THAT is…

😛

My picture content on my blog is almost entirely mine, with a few noted exceptions. I think a total of three pictures that were grabbed from a google search, the remainder of the photos that were not mine were used with permission. That is the only way to fly.

I won’t resort to “Breda Porn” or “Weer’d Porn” just to get visits to my site. I hope that my site has attributes on its own worth visiting.

Oddly enough I get a TON of google hits from Scandinavia searching for “Weer Porn” and “Weerd Porn”. I hope they enjoy what they got! 😉

As for images, I get a ton of hits from google image search for my photos, so far I haven’t found anybody using one that I object to. I don’t see it as completely necessary to track down the original taker of every photo, but certainly if somebody asked me (even rudely) to take down a photo I didn’t take or know the photographer, I wouldn’t even ask if they were the legal owner of the shot. Life’s too short to be that kind of petulant dick.

I’m just getting my rookie blog started. Got to upgrade to start getting traffic.
I do agree . All I want is my own original material. If it’s good enough, I may get traffic. That’s the whole point, to make sure it’s worth your time. If someone else is quoted, it should be made known or link to them so they @ least get credit for their work.

As Chance says in the above link “Share the Road”, we can all work together here, but don’t take advantage of the works of others, and don’t let others take advantage of your work. But don’t be afraid to riff off of what others have said because that rising tide lifts all boats.

In the end give your own honest take on things and if you do a good job you’ll be rewarded.

BTW when you get the blog running let me know what the URL is, I’d love to have a look and send some traffic your way!

While it would appear as though narcissism is pretty much a requirement for being a “gun control” supporter, it would also appear as though supposedly pro-rights individuals are not always free of that particular shortcoming either…

Which is more the shame in both cases I am aware of. The good news is that the power and beauty of the Internet works both ways – they can flagrantly demonstrate their idiocy and immaturity with reckless abandon and no one to stand in their way, but we can call them on the carpet for it and there is not a damned thing they can do about it.

In mostly unrelated news, increasing internal conflicts, while annoying, are generally a good indication of how much an organization is winning/successful against external threats…